This topic is intended to provide a quick-reference list of all the main beta and release versions of Mac OS X, along with a few notes on them and how what hardware or emulators you need to run each version on.

Rhapsody Developer Release 1-- Beta-- Basically NeXTSTEP with Apple's name on it-- Available for PowerPC and Intel (works with limited success in VMware, can work well on some PCs from around the time it was made, old IBM ThinkPads work especially well with it)

Rhapsody Developer Release 2-- Updated beta release of DR1, see above

Mac OS X Server 1.0-- Retail, server edition only-- Does not have Aqua interface, this is basically the release version of Rhapsody, although was not a big seller before what we know now as OS X was launched-- Can only be run on supported PowerPC Macs

Mac OS X Server 1.2-- Retail, updated version of the above

Mac OS X Developer Preview 1, 2, 3, 4-- Beta-- DP1 and 2 did not have Aqua and were similar to Rhapsody and OS X Server 1.x, while DP3 and 4 introduced Aqua-- Can only be run on supported PowerPC Macs

Mac OS X Public Beta (beta, was publicly available)-- Beta, publicly available through retail channels for a reduced price though, which was then given back as a discount on 10.0 when released-- Can only be run on supported PowerPC Macs, date also needs to be set back as this build has an expiry date

Mac OS X 10.0 Cheetah-- Retail, first released version of what most people would recognise as OS X-- Releases from hereon in are all available as both client and server editions-- Can only be run on supported PowerPC Macs

Mac OS X 10.1 Puma-- First version which can be run in the PearPC emulator of the PowerPC processor on a PC, 10.1-10.4 can be used-- Very similar to 10.0 with a cheap/free upgrade for 10.0 users offered, 10.0 is often seen as a second public beta

Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar-- First version where the cat codename was used on the packaging and in marketing materials

Mac OS X 10.3 Panther-- First version to require at least a PowerPC G3 processor (all versions of OS X were only supported on G3 or higher but 10.0-10.2 could be made to run on some older machines too)

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger-- Originally released for PowerPC only but subsequently released for Intel too. 10.4.1 is available as a pre-installed VMware image from Apple's Developer Transition Kit machine, while 10.4.4 was the first version available publicly for Intel machines. Intel versions are available either as grey "OEM" discs though or hacked versions, the retail discs are PowerPC-only (except 10.4.7 Server which was a Universal retail DVD).

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard-- First version which will not run on PowerPC G3 Macs-- First version available only on DVD, not CD-- First version that did not offer Classic Mode for running OS 9 applications-- Fully Universal for PowerPC G4/G5 and Intel machines-- First version since 10.0 which does not run in PearPC as far as I know-- Supported in VMware for Mac, code-sharing between Mac and Windows version means it is easy to run virtualised on a PC too despite being unlicensed-- Retail DVDs can be installed on PCs as well as hacked versions when using the "Boot-132" method

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard-- First Mac OS version since System 7.1 which will not run on any PowerPC machine-- Supported in VMware for Mac, code-sharing between Mac and Windows version means it is easy to run virtualised on a PC too despite being unlicensed-- Retail DVDs can be installed on PCs as well as hacked versions when using the "Boot-132" method

OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion"-- Requires 2GB of RAM to install-- First OS X to be referred to as "OS X" instead of Mac OS X

OS X 10.9 "Mavericks"-- First OS X to break the cat name in favor of a place in California-- Integrates many parts of iOS into the software, creating new look-- Free to all users of Snow Leopard or higher

Probably because the compatability hardware wise, also user99672 is that in pearpc or not, if so a tutorial would be nice

I have no [censored] clue if that's from PearPC or not. I found it on Google Images. sorry effy11. I have no clue how to get PearPC to work, which is why I created a topic and got our heads cut off for it. I do not have the money to afford a decent x86 emulator for a PowerPC mac and would rather not emulate MacOS over Windows over MacOS, It would be slow as [censored]. That and due to my parents messing with my harddisk, I can't use the normal PearPC

Just wondering, why aren't there as many Mac beta leaks as Windows leaks? Is it just the interest for Apple is down?

The only Apple beta builds that ever leak are the ones given out to developers at conferences etc, so there aren't all the internal builds and they also give out fewer builds publicly as they do most of their testing internally, they don't do public betas like MS do (apart from the one they did for 10.0).

Rhapsody Developer Release 1-- Beta-- Basically NeXTSTEP with Apple's name on it-- Available for PowerPC and Intel (works with limited success in VMware, can work well on some PCs from around the time it was made, old IBM ThinkPads work especially well with it)

Rhapsody Developer Release 2-- Updated beta release of DR1, see above

Seems a bit overly simplified... Rhapsody DR2 was the foundations of the final release and was intended for developers to use to make applications on. Some applications from OPENSTEP can be hacked to run on Rhapsody DR1 (5.0) for Intel, but most apps for Rhapsody DR1 won't run on Rhapsody DR2 (5.1) and later, and apps for Rhapsody DR2 and later won't run on Rhapsody DR1.

The purpose of Rhapsody DR1 was to solve hardware issues and to start the transition from the OPENSTEP APIs (based on Objective C) to Yellow Box APIs (a merger of Objective C and Java), and to start the interface modifications towards those developed in Copland.

But I'm most likely not the best person to ask about summarizing Rhapsody in a few bullet points.

Vista Ultimate R2 wrote:

Mac OS X Server 1.0-- Retail, server edition only-- Does not have Aqua interface, this is basically the release version of Rhapsody, although was not a big seller before what we know now as OS X was launched-- Can only be run on supported PowerPC Macs

Well, it was sold as a server operating system... and cost about $499.

The only people who had a good reason to run it as a workstation OS were those doing WebObjects development and wanted to use Macs. And back then WebObjects was several thousands of dollars, so the added expense wasn't that bad. Plus you got a limited version of WebObjects 4.0.1 with the OS, so you could teach yourself WebObjects (and start doing development work) with it.

But if you didn't know about any of that, $500 for an OS seemed pretty steep.

I could've mentioned this earlier, but since the topic's sort of active again, I'll mention it anyway - Bochs is supposed to be very good at running Rhapsody, I remember trying it but I can't recall my results. What I do recall, though, is that you can get colour, high-res graphics working under Bochs, and that Rhapsody Guru wrote a howto PDF, see this thread (includes PDF, but downloads require registration, you may be able to find it elsewhere).

What's the deal with running Mac Betas? Is it just like Windows Betas where you need to adjust the bios dates to get them to run? Or is it more involved than that?

They don't tend to check for a date (a few do, most don't), but they need Mac hardware from around the time they were released, you can't usually run a version of the Mac OS on a Mac that is newer than the OS. As noted in the first post, a lot of them can only be run on real hardware and not in emulators.

moonlit wrote:

I could've mentioned this earlier, but since the topic's sort of active again...

As I mentioned in the first post, I wanted the topic to be Sticky as it's useful information that shouldn't be lost, but I think the permissions must be wring as I don't have the option to make it so - if someone with the right access sees this, please make this one Sticky.

What's the deal with running Mac Betas? Is it just like Windows Betas where you need to adjust the bios dates to get them to run? Or is it more involved than that?

They don't tend to check for a date (a few do, most don't), but they need Mac hardware from around the time they were released, you can't usually run a version of the Mac OS on a Mac that is newer than the OS. As noted in the first post, a lot of them can only be run on real hardware and not in emulators.

Cheers. I'm currently grabbing Snow Leopard Server Beta for a look see so I should be fine.

I tried to unzip the Snow Leopard Server Developer Build from the BetaArchive server and it said file corrupt/unexpected end of file. I checked the file online compared to what I downloaded and it was identical byte for byte.